


The 2-Train from City Hall to Brooklyn

by finch (afinch)



Category: Titanic RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-25
Updated: 2013-12-25
Packaged: 2018-01-04 19:58:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1085100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afinch/pseuds/finch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Not waiting once was bad enough. Not waiting twice was just criminal. Not waiting twice and marrying on a <i>whim</i> was the cruelest of betrayals.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The 2-Train from City Hall to Brooklyn

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shoemaster](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shoemaster/gifts).



> I may or may not have used this (http://jamwingles.tumblr.com/post/40639956464/browniet-stopthatimp-tonystaarks) for some inspiration ...

The boat was sinking. The boat was sinking and it was so impossibly loud, it was torture trying to think. You had to hit the handcuffs, break Jack out. The boat was sinking. Try as you might, you just kept giggling. Every time, Leo would step back out of his cuffs, an impish little smirk on his face.

CUT! The director yelled, and both of you were taking deep breaths, trying to get it right. He'd said to call him Jim, but you thought of him as Cameron. It might have been a bit more informal, but he didn't look like a 'Jim'.

ACTION! 

The boat was sinking. The boat was sinking and it was so impossibly loud, it was torture trying to think. You had to hit the handcuffs, break Jack out. The boat was sinking. You could do this. You raised the axe, looked determinedly at - was Leo laughing now? 

"I almost had it!" You're not mad, the peevish smirk on your face proves that.

He just laughed some more until Cameron yelled 'come on kids, do you want your Oscars or not?'

* 

He was there at your wedding, tipping his head to one side as you took your vows - a look that would come to haunt you as a reminder of a joke taken much too far. Jim was a great man, even if you were still feeling like just a child, not yet an adult. Not even Titanic could make you grow up too fast. 

He said all the right things, smiled all the right ways, and never did the butterflies abate. You'd promised to wait until you each won Oscars. You'd both been so sure that it would come with this blockbuster movie. You wondered, as he walked away with his date that night, where in your relatively short list of regrets, not waiting would fall.

*

The next scene was the car scene. 

"Make loooove to me, Leo," you crooned, and he blushed so deep a shade of red, you briefly wondered if you'd offended him. 

But he had come back, just as quick, whispering so only you could hear.

"Have my babies, Kate." Later, you'd tell yourself it was just your imagination playing tricks, but for right now, you fall into his arms, letting him dip you to the delight of the crew around the stage.

*

"Kind of ugly for a baby, isn't she?" Leo quipped.

"You don't mean that!" you gasped, leaning protectively over your new daughter. 

"Course not," he said, looking regrettably sorry. "She's absolutely precious, just like you."

Your husband came into the room then, and Leo was the pinnacle of politeness. You felt like everything changed in that moment, like there was some challenge, some fight, the men were having around you and your precious daughter.

Leo left about an hour later, but he looked smug, like he'd won the battle. You weren't something to be fought over, you wanted to tell them, but you didn't think either of them would listen. 

Maybe it was just the post-pregnancy hormones playing tricks on you.

* 

The dancing was fun, the dancing was the most fun that you had filming the movie. Sure, it wasn't really you in the movie doing all those fancy moves, you and Leo just flailed around a bit, spun around for the camera where necessary. All while the choreographer shook his head in exasperation and prepped the dancers.

Even Leo got into the spirit of how absurd it was, doing his jig while singing about power and gold coins and finally making it. You were certain he was singing only to you. Who else would have understood what he was saying. No, it was to you, you just couldn't see how seriously he'd meant it, yet.

You were only 21 after all. 

*

After the first few fights, you called Leo, asked if you could grab dinner. 

"Filming," was all he said, and you figured he was still mad that you hadn't waited.

You needn't have worried. Not two days later he was showing up unannounced with gifts; flowers for you, and a drum set for your daughter. "I'll teach her to use it when she's older."

"Leo, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you're trying to buy my love."

"No, no, I don't need to buy it. I've got it right here, always." He tapped his heart, and you thought of the divorce papers, and swooned, just a little bit.

*

Movies were always shot out of order, so you didn't complain too much when you were shown the tank and the door you'd be lying on for a bit. 

"Can't we both fit?" Leo asked, and you swore Cameron was going to murder him.

"No, no," you said, rifling through your script. "See, it says right here 'Jack is an egotistical bastard who tries to prove what a real man he is by staying freezing to death in the water. Rose reluctantly agrees to buy into his-"

"It does not say any of that!" Leo protested.

You politely hand him your script. He starts to shake his head almost immediately. "No, no, see here?" he says, and you lean over as close as you can, trying not to giggle.

"Rose is too vain to allow Jack to crawl onto the very large door with-"

Now it's your turn to protest, "Rose is not _too vain!_ " 

Cameron ends it before it gets any further than that, though he side-eyes Leo for the rest of shooting that day.

*

Not waiting once was bad enough. Not waiting twice was just criminal. Not waiting twice and marrying on a _whim_ was the cruelest of betrayals. Sam was a dream, though, and he was really good with Mia. Not to mention Jim didn't seem to begrudge you for dating him. Not in the same way that Leo did.

Sam was different than Jim, though. He was a bit more patient with Leo. Maybe as a director he understood what you two had shared on the set. He let Leo set the paces, and Leo responded well to that. 

(Leo still couldn't help pointing out the Oscar nominations both of you were picking up as your careers kept growing bigger and bigger. It made you regret falling in love with Sam, just a little bit.)

* 

Ah, the drawing scene. You were were nervous, but Leo was even more so. 

"It's just a body," you teased him; you liked the way he'd blush a deep crimson red.

You thought about what you had talked about the night before while lying on the hot set, cameras and crew everywhere. He'd asked you out, and you'd teased him, telling him that people who dated on the sets of their movies never worked out.

"What if we win Oscars, then?" he'd said, cheeking back at you, in a way only a 22 year old who thinks they have the world could.

"Alright," you relented, trying hard not to give into the temptation to sleep with him right there and now. "We'll wait until we win Oscars."

Coming in the next day and having to be nearly nude in front of him wasn't something you were going to let be a challenge.

"It's only a body, love," you teased again, nestling into the sofa, ready for the cameras to roll.

*

You shouldn't have been surprised when he called you that January night. He wasn't drunk, but he sounded it; you remember thinking euphoria does strange things to people. 

"Halfway there! Kate, we can do this!"

You wanted to cry. You loved Sam. You loved being a mother - to Mia, and now Joe. You loved your family. Besides, he was out dating cheap replacements for you, and you'd never actually confronted him on it.

"And Gisele?" you asked quietly. If you could keep your voice quiet, you could keep yourself calm, and calm was of the utmost importance. 

"I'd rather have you. Always."

"A Golden Globe isn't an Oscar, Leo," you said, and hung up, one hand over your mouth, trying to hold back the tears. 

Sam knew, though. He was such a good man, he always knew. He held you tightly, whispered that it was going to be all right. He didn't know of your little joke that wasn't a joke with Leo - he just knew the two of you shared something incredibly special.

"Come kiss the children goodnight," Sam whispered softly, and you nodded.

*

Shoots were long and complicated and sometimes tempers flared up. Today, Leo was late. You'd been late before, Leo had been late before, everyone, at one point or another, had been late. Your temper was up and flaring today due to lack of sleep and a general desire for a real day off. You'd begged for this part, though, practically whored yourself out to get it, and you weren't going to complain that the schedule was moving too demandingly fast. 

Leo, on the other hand, decided to take the passive-aggressive approach and show up nearly two hours late, with a sheepish grin on his face that you would have called boyishly adorable any other day. 

Not today. 

You marched over, ready to ream him a new one; a crew member stepped between you at the last moment. "Whoa, Kate, calm down. We're not that far behind schedule." The idea that you were behind schedule was infuriating, and now it was solely Leo's fault.

"I hope I don't have to be nice to you, today," you snapped at him. He looked shocked - still shocked that you'd charged at him - maybe he thought you were going to hit him, or something. Now he looked like a wounded puppy, and you immediately wanted to apologize.

He opened his stupid mouth instead.

"Actually, I think I keep you from killing yourself today."

*

Revolutionary Road was tricky. It was you, and Leo … and Sam. Sam was patient, though, and knew better than to come home at the end of the night jealous that you and Leo had been goofing off or having tender moments on set. 

He knew better than to be jealous when you stood up accepting your very own Golden Globe.

"Leo, I'm so happy I can stand up here and tell you how much I love you. And how much I've loved you for thirteen years, and your performance in this film is nothing short of spectacular. I love you with all my heart, I really do."

It was wine-fueled, but it was also an apology of sorts, for everything that had gone wrong, for two lives whose paths diverged and met again - two paths, one well-worn and deep, the other, pristine, waiting for the right person to travel along it. It was the first time you could remember Leo looking something other than dour at an awards ceremony. It bothered you, a little bit, that he was still clinging.

*

It was the flying scene, and much like cutting off the handcuffs, the two of you can't stop giggling. Cameron is getting annoyed, but you're just happy that the fight is over. You're happy to have Leo back, happy, quirky, beautiful Leo, who keeps whispering all the wrong things in your ear while he's supposed to be showing you how to fly. 

Cameron, maybe because he just wants to hurry up and get the shoot done, strides over. You half-hide behind Leo, worried the director is going to yell. Leo shoulders up for what he thinks will be a huge scolding.

But Cameron only smiles. "You two are two of the best young actors I've ever worked with."

Then, while you're both beaming, lured into his false security, he leans in and says quietly, "So stop wasting film."

As he walks away, you and Leo catch each other's eyes and can't help but to laugh some more.

*

Your second marriage was over, and it was Leo who came over, asked no questions, just held you tightly. You thought maybe, just this once, you could see where the two of you would go.

The sex was tender, soft. Leo was a good lover, and you wondered why, at 21, you felt the need to go down a different path. Why you felt the need to listen to a cocky man tell you that you were both going to rule the world. 

Anything could be possible at 21.

But your path diverged, and even now, it still diverged. You clung to him tightly, but he gently detangled himself, kissed you softly, and said, "It's done now."

*

The boat was gone, Jack was gone, Rose was alone with the steerage class.

"Rose Dawson."

You spoke it like a promise, even if it was one that only you and Leo understood.

*

As you hold your new baby boy, Bear, you wait for the phone to ring. Leo will be calling any minute now to offer congratulations, and probably to let you know he'd bought a plane ticket and was going to come any moment now.

"Your godfather's on his way," you whisper to the hours old infant. "He's going to teach you many new and exciting things, and come round for holidays, and do all sorts of things that will drive me crazy while he is the best godfather to you he can be. One day, if you're really lucky, I'll tell you the story of how I loved him."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Kat for the beta and encouragement! 
> 
> The title is taken from this poem, which is absurdly perfect for them:  
> "Falling" by Patrick Phillips
> 
> The truth is  
> that I fall in love
> 
> so easily because  
> it’s easy. It happens
> 
> a dozen times some days.  
> I’ve lived whole lives,
> 
> had children,  
> grown old, and died
> 
> in the arms of other women  
> in no more time
> 
> than it takes the 2-train  
> to get from City Hall
> 
> to Brooklyn,  
> which always brings me
> 
> back to you:  
> the only one
> 
> I fall in love with  
> at least once every day—
> 
> not because  
> there are no other
> 
> lovely women in the world,  
> but because each time
> 
> dying in their arms,  
> I call your name.


End file.
